Gose

For this summer's road trip beer, which traveled all the way back east across the country with me for work and family time for a month, I decided to go for a session-strength quick sour. The first examples of gose that I tried just a few years ago didn't excite me; the idea of a briny beer sounded disgusting, and that's how those first tastes read to my palate. My opinion of the style came up substantially, though, after a couple trips to Portland and its myriad kickass breweries. So, onward gose!

I've had plenty of success achieving a clean, lemony lactic sourness from sour worting with an uncrushed malt lacto starter. This time, though, I decided to combine its power with that of Goodbelly, highly touted by Milk the Funk for lacto souring. I found MTFers to generally recommend going with the mango version to minimize flavors contributed by the drink itself.

Trepidatious about ending up with an overly salty mess, I went conservative on the salt addition this time. Following the never-fail advice from the Mad Fermentationist, I did my best to forego the celery flavor of Mexican coriander in

favor of the Fruity Pebbles-like hit of the Indian version. Not having used either type in a beer before, however, I went light on that as well. For extra fun, I added some fresh nectarines (after freezing them) to a portion of the batch for a week before bottling.

So, how did the final beer(s) turn out? So well that I don't have a bottle remaining to do formal tasting notes. For those who liked sour beer, it went over very well: solidly tart without being tongue scraping with a robust tropical fruitiness (though not a new world overripe fruit character). It had a surprisingly full mouthfeel, probably from the high FG and mango in the Goodbelly, to which I also attribute that tropical fruit flavor. The salt and coriander were very subdued, so next time I'll definitely up those contributions.

I'll also consider sour worting for one day less; while the sourness wasn't overpowering, I think it might work even better here backing off it a touch. I'd be interested to see how Goodbelly does on its own; I dug the rounder, gentler lacto character this batch had over previous quick sours I've done with just malt starters. Another flavor of Goodbelly would be worth exploring, too; given how the mango carried over to the finished beer, one could definitely design a recipe to work with those residual characters.

While I didn't feel like downing bottle after bottle at a time of this, it was a welcome fresh flavor in the heat of a swampy summer.

No Witty Pun - Gose

Batch size: 5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.053
Projected SRM: 3.4
Projected IBU: 11.2
Boil time: 90 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 77%

Grains
48.8% - 5 lb Pilsner
48.8% - 5 lb White Wheat
2.4% - 4 oz Acidulated malt

Hops
.2 oz Galena (16%) (90 min)

Yeast
1.7 l Lacto starter
16 fl oz Goodbelly Mango probiotic drink
US-05

Extras
.5 tablet Whirlfloc (10 min)
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (10 min)
.5 oz Sea salt (0 min)
.5 oz Indian coriander seed (0 min)
3.5 lb Yellow nectarines, sliced & frozen (secondary)

Water (mash)
Profile: Reno

Lacto starter: 17 June 2017
1700 ml starter wort, 1 cup uncrushed malt, 1/2 tsp Lactic acid (88%), held at ~108F for 3 days.

Brewday: 20 June 2017
Mash: 13 qts @ 152F for 60 minutes
Sparge: 20 qts @ 190F
Pre-boil volume: 7 gallons
Pre-lacto SG: 10.8P (1.042)

Lacto fermentation: Brought to brief boil then chilled to 110F. Added 1/2 tsp Lactic acid (88%), Goodbelly at room temperature, and lacto starter. Covered wort surface with plastic wrap to reduce oxygen contact, held at ~103F for 3 days.

22 June 2017
Kettle was too full and the covering couldn’t keep a perfect seal. Sweet wort exhibits some fecal aromatics, but also includes a strong, full mango/peach aroma.

Transferred to boil kettle; boiled, hopped, chilled, and pitched US-05 as normal.

5.3 gallons to fermenter. Fermented in swamp cooler at 65F ambient.

28 June 2017: Allowed temp to rise 2F per day. Krauesen beginning to drop.

Bottled: 2 July 2017
FG: 1.015
ABV: 5.0%
Bottled 3 gallons with 3 oz table sugar.

Transferred remaining 2 gallons onto 2.5 lb yellow nectarines (frozen).

Nectarine Bottled: 9 July 2017
Bottled 1.75 gallons with 2 oz table sugar

American Sour Red

Last summer, I brewed a mixed fermentation blonde beer with a collection of propped-up bottle dregs. This year, I continued that tradition with a red beer.

While the rough outline of the recipe follows the Rare Barrel's base red beer, I used Best Mälz's RedX malt for the base to (hopefully) achieve a truly saturated red color. Flaked oats as well as wheat and rye malts joined the party for added malt complexity and mouthfeel. The barest sliver of Galena brings just over 5 IBUs to the batch.

Prior to boiling, I soured the wort with a lacto starter grown up from malt. I've followed this process with great success in the past, but this time around, it failed to produce any noticeable sourness. It may have been the short contact time: having found this method to make a big impact in previous batches, I only gave the starter 8 hours to work before boiling. At this point, however, my dregs culture has produced plenty of acidity, so no harm, no foul. I started this year's batch with Wyeast's French Saison yeast to consume some of the simpler sugars and produce some spicy esters before the Brett and bugs took hold and continued shaping the beer. At transfer, I didn't get any bold saison characteristics, which was in line with my expectations for this yeast's addition: subtle underlying complexity.

Since my 6-gallon carboy was otherwise occupied by mead, this batch spent its two months of primary fermentation in a plastic bucket. At transfer to secondary, the flavor was developing nicely, but might be more acetic than I'd prefer. It has since developed a nice pellicle and is aging happily. While I really enjoyed fruiting much of last year's blonde, most of the fruit I have on hand right now--farmer's market-procured pluots, peaches, and nectarines, all sliced, frozen, and vacuum packed in the freezer--don't strike me as a great pairing for a red beer. I do have some cherries from a year and a half ago, but they haven't been properly sealed and smell suspiciously like the smoked cheese we bought around the same time. This beer might be a good candidate for oaking.

I've planned a dark beer for next year's iteration. I'll still probably go with that, but may brew another blonde in the meantime to use all of the stone fruit I have hanging around right now. I may also start a new dregs culture; in my zeal to start this project, my existing culture received dregs from a few bottles that I'd prefer not to have in the mix. This spring I had a new culture going from a bottle each of Logsdon Farmhouse Cerasus (October 2014) and Cascade Blackcap Raspberry (2015) that was producing a fantastic strawberry character. I ended up adding it to the mix that went into the red, but I'd like to start over with that blend for future mixed fermentation beers. As far as the project overall, though, I don't regret a moment of it.

American Sour Red

Batch size: 5.25 gallons
Projected OG: 1.063
Projected SRM: 15.3
Projected IBU: 5.2
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 62%

Grains
67.2% - 10 lb Best Mälz RedX
13.4% - 2 lb Weyermann Wheat
9.2% - 1 lb 6 oz Flaked oats
6.7% - 1 lb Rye malt
3.4% - 8 oz Aromatic

Hops
.1 oz Galena (16.0%) (60 min)

Yeast
250 ml Lacto starter (sour wort 8 hours)
Sour Cultures No. 1 (1/4 cup), 2, 3
WY3711 French Saison - 1 l starter

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (5 min)

Water (mash)
Profile: Reno (brewersfriend.com)
Target profile: Balanced (brewersfriend.com)
65.2 Ca, 8.5 Mg, 20.9 Na, 76.5 Cl, 86.7 SO4
Alkalinity 34.0, RA -17.5

Lacto starter: 28 May 2016
25 g DME with 250 ml water & pinch of yeast nutrient, with handful of malt
Kept in bucket with hot tap water & aquarium heater set to max (93F).

Brewday: 16 June 2016
Mash: 18 qts @ 156F for 60 minutes
Sparge: 20 qts @ 190F
Pre-boil volume: 7.2 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 13.2P (1.052)

Water additions (mash): 4 g Gypsum, 2 g Epsom salts, 1 g Salt, 4 g CaCl

Pre-acidified with 7 ml Lactic acid (88%), brought to quick boil, chilled to 115F, pitched Lacto starter. Covered in plastic wrap, kept warm for 8 hours; no noticeable souring took place. Boiled as usual.

Transferred 5.9 gallons at 15.8P to fermenter.
Chilled to 72F (warm ground water), put in swamp cooler at 62F to chill. Fermented in swamp cooler at 68F ambient, ramped to ambient (~75F) after 1 day active fermentation.

Secondary: 17 August 2016
SG: 1.012

Bottled: 1 May 2017
FG: 1.010
ABV: 7.0%
Bottled 4 gallons with 3.8 oz table sugar.
Bottling yeast (US-05) acclimated to the beer’s high gravity 24 hours ahead of time by adding finished beer to the priming solution at a ~1:1 ratio with water.
Moved 1 gallon onto 9.7 oz dried blueberries (rinsed in boiled water, sprayed with Star San) & .5 oz boiled oak cubes.

American Sour Blonde

For as much as I really enjoy sour beers, it's been nearly two years since I produced one. Seeing an opportunity over this summer to set a new sour project rolling undisturbed, I put together a recipe for a moderate-gravity blonde beer based on The Rare Barrel's blonde recipe. The only alterations I made to this recipe had to do with ingredient availability: Briess aromatic malt was available locally while the Franco-Belges variety was not, and unmalted soft white wheat stood in for spelt malt. I don't foresee these changes really ruining this beer.

I really like the approach Jay Goodwin, one of The Rare Barrel's founders, has described for testing out ingredients and processes for producing sour and funky beers. He's covered it several times in his interview on the Brewing Network and in his own excellent BN show, The Sour Hour. The Rare Barrel contracts local breweries to produce three different worts--blonde, red, and dark--to their specifications, eliminating the need for their own on-premise "hot side" brewery. They then experiment with different yeast and bacteria strains and mixes, fruits and other post-boil ingredients, and other variables in their Berkeley, California facility. Over time and many batches, they seek to determine what different souring methods and processes offer sour brewers and blenders. It was a real treat to finally sample their wares in their tasting room this spring.

My plan here was to make a double batch of wort to ferment and sour with two different cultures: one with Wyeast's proprietary lambic blend, the other with the sour/funky dregs I've collected over the past year (along with the grown-up dregs from a bottle of Russian River's Damnification). I managed to produce about six and a half gallons of wort on my system, to which I then added back boiled & cooled water for eight total gallons. Two carboys received four gallons each. The batches fermented cool and controlled to start, then ramped up to the semi-uncontrolled ambient temps of Reno's summer months. The initial krauesen had dropped in both fermenters after the first few days in water baths, though the Wyeast carboy began another before we left town.

Not trusting conventional airlocks to stay full during our absence in the heat and low humidity, I set up blowoff tubes for each carboy that run into a bucket of Star San. Hopefully this will keep oxygen transfer to the wort from getting too crazy. My only big concern for this experiment comes from my top-up water; I couldn't tell before I started adding it to the carboys, but it picked up a bit of pink-brown color from the old boil kettle that held it. That kettle has had some deep scorching from a failed batch several years ago that I wasn't able to fully remove. At this point I can only hope that it won't heavily impact the way this project turns out. For now, I'm just curious to see the variation between the carboys as the different yeast and bacteria blends have expressed themselves when we return.

American Sour Blonde - double batch

Batch size: 8 gallons
Projected OG: 1.050
Projected SRM: 5
Projected IBU: 7
Boil time: 70 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 68%

Grains
68.75% - 11 lb 2-row
12.5% - 2 lb Wheat
6.25% - 1 lb Organic soft white wheat
6.25% - 1 lb Aromatic
6.25% - 1 lb Organic flaked oats

Hops
.2 oz Millennium (15.9%) (60 min)

Yeast
A - Bottle dregs from RR Damnation (multi-stage stirplate starter) & collected sours
B - WY3728 Belgian Lambic Blend - no starter

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (5 min)

Water (mash)
Profile: Reno
2 g Gypsum
6 g CaCl
3 g Epsom salts
1 g Salt
7 mL Lactic acid (88%)

Brewday: 15 June 2015
Mash: 156F for 60 minutes
Milled & boiled white wheat in 1 qt water for 15 minutes; added to start of main mash
Pre-boil volume: 8.25 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 12.7P (1.051)
Post-boil SG (before adding back water): 14.1P (1.057)

Top-up water had pink-brown cast to it; may be from sitting all day in the old kettle.
Final fermenter volume (total): 8 gallons
OG is estimate; possible affecting factors include untrustworthy measuring tools and stratification of wort & top-up water.

Water report and chemical calculations from brewersfriend.com, using "light colored & malty" setting.

Topped off 2 fermenters with boiled & cooled water to 4 gallons each.
30 seconds of pure O2 in each fermenter.

Ferment:
Day 1 - up to 69F ambient
Day 2 - 71F ambient
Day 3 - 72F ambient; initial krauesen dropped in both carboys
Day 4 - removed from water baths, left at ambient temps (75-85F) for several months

15 February 2016: As the WY3728 batch's airlock tended to suck back and go dry with exceeding regularity (drafty corner?) I swapped the airlocks on both batches for breathable silicone stoppers a couple months ago. Today I found out how good a job they do at creating a vacuum rather than let in outside air. I pried a bit at the top piece, expecting to let out a bit of pressure. Instead a massive gasp of air rushed in, breaking the pellicle. I haven't checked these batches' progress at all; this might be the time.

Secondary/Bottling #1: 30 April 2016
A
FG: 1.011
ABV: 4.6%
Sample was solidly lactic, tart that grabs the sides of the tongue, very light hint of saltine.

Bottled 1 gallon with .4 oz table sugar. Remainder put on fruit:
1-gal #1: 1 lb 6 oz pluots
1-gal #2: 1 lb peaches
1-gal #3: 2 lb 7.1 oz cherries

B
FG: 1.011
ABV: 4.6%
This batch took on air during fermentation and developed very obvious acetobacter infection, but tasted all right at this point. Sample was somewhat tart, generally uninteresting.

Bottled 3 gallons with 1.9 oz table sugar. Remaining gallon put on 1 lb 5 oz cranberries.

Brett/Bug Culturing

I keep going back to the Mad Fermentationist for inspiration. A couple months ago I listened to Jay Goodwin of the Rare Barrel interview Mr. Tonsmiere himself about his new book (which I'm sorry to say I still haven't read) on the first episode of the Brewing Network's Sour Hour. It sent me to the MF blog archives, particularly to a post from a few years back on maintaining Brett and Lacto cultures. My sour brewing has gone all right so far, but I'm interested in doing more, so I decided to take some advice from that blog post and start a mixed microbe culture.

Since I'm looking to nurture the full range of tasty sour bugs available, I made a quart of starter wort from a mix of DME and preservative-free apple juice to an OG of about 1.030, along with a bit of yeast nutrient. This is hanging out in a growler in the back of our fridge to keep the bacteria from outcompeting the yeast. Every other month I'll decant off the old starter and add a new batch. I may add a few IBUs worth of hops to successive worts and sample the fermented starters to get a sense of the culture's evolving character (and make sure it hasn't gone south).

Now when I have a sour beer at home that I enjoy, I check this list of viable bottle dregs (once again from MF, natch). If it's on there--or I can find decently reliable information elsewhere that the bottle should contain living bugs and/or Brett--I flame the bottle lip and the dregs go into the growler. It's definitely influenced my beer-buying habits; I purchase sours more often now, but also spend time investigating them for possible culture viability.

As long as this culture continues to behave itself, I'll keep a record of its development here, including the list of dregs added and when I change out the starter wort. The initial donors are in the picture above, and I just picked up a few more bottles last week in Colorado that will make their way into the mix soon. I'm sure that eventually I'll acquire a few samples from the burgeoning northern California sour scene as well. Let me know if you recommend scouting out anything in particular!

Sour Culture No. 1

11 October 2014:
Added 1 qt starter wort @ ~1.030 (Light DME, Apple juice, Yeast nutrient)

2012 Goose Island Sofie
2012 Lindemanns Cuvée René

7 December 2014

Decanted off old starter wort

Added 1 qt starter wort

   .5 qt Apple juice

   2 oz DME

   No hops this time

OG: 14.6P (1.059)! Way higher than desired. Added extra 1 qt water to bring it in line.

Old starter tasted pretty sweet. The cold is impeding the bugs from out competing the Sacch & Brett, but all microbial action may be near zero at this point. Considering giving the starter a warm stretch at some point in the process to ensure everything stays alive & working.

13 January 2015
2014 TRiNiTY Blow Up Your TV Blanche Saison Grisette

14 January 2015
2014 Crooked Stave St Bretta Autumn

18 February 2015
Warmed starter to ambient (high 50s) a few days ago; subdued but active fermentation in progress. Kicking out sour, buttery aromas presently.

30 March 2015
Decanted off old starter wort. Sat out at ambient (~65F) for a few weeks, then back into the fridge once active fermentation ceased.
Added 1L starter wort
   1.1 L Filtered water
   55 g Light DME
   Pinch Yeast nutrient
   No hops
100 mL went on to 2015 Russian River Damnation dregs; rest onto bugs. Both starters out on counter, ambient ~65F.

Old starter was tart, clean, and very tasty. Guess we'll see what develops in a full-size, long-term ferment.

///

Sour Culture No. 2

21 October 2015
1 qt starter wort @ ~1.030 (light DME, yeast nutrient)
Kept on counter at ambient temp (~67F)

2015 Almanac Farm to Table Farmer's Reserve Pluot
   - Hay/tart aroma; rounded fruity (pluot) taste

23 October 2015

2015 Bruery Terreux Sour in the Rye
   - Firm lactic acidity

22 December 2015
2015 Crooked Stave Hop Savant Galaxy
   - Musty funk, light citrus, hay

24 December 2015
2015 Crooked Stave Progenitor
   - Barnyard, hay, tropical funk

3 January 2016
Dec 2014 Crooked Stave Cerveza Sin Frontera
   - Drying sour, lots of cranberry

17 January 2016
Chilled in fridge for a week and a half, decanted beer. Beer was nicely tart, fruity, background saltine note (Crooked Stave character) with a surprisingly viscous mouthfeel.
Added .75 qt boiled down final runnings from IIPA.

///

Sour Culture No. 3

26 May 2016
10 g DME in 100 ml water, plus a pinch of yeast nutrient
Oct 2014 Logsdon Farmhouse Cerasus
   - Complex tart (lactic & acetic), cherry, oak tannin, a little malt

31 May 2016
2015 Cascade Blackcap Raspberry
   - Really nice dark berry, solidly sour

7 June 2016
100 g DME in 1 L water, plus a pinch of yeast nutrient

16 June 2016
Chilled in fridge for several days, decanted beer. Not fully attenuated--only left a few days for fermenting--but resulting beer was lightly tart and had a really nice strawberry flavor.

///

Sour Culture No. 4

20 November 2016
4 oz DME in 500 ml water, plus a pinch of yeast nutrient
2015 Russian River Supplication
   - Hay, barnyard, cherry, Pinot, damp funk, oak

23 November 2016
2016 Holy Mountain Grapefruit Table
   - Clean lactic acidity (lemon), grapefruit juice

27 November 2016
2016 Holy Mountain Dark Retreat
   - Strong, rounded tart (not just lactic), juicy red/dark berry, oak

4 December 2016
2015-16 Oude Gueze Tilquin A l'ancienne
    - Wet hay, lemon peel, damp basement, tannic

25 December 2016
Chilled for a week, decanted & added 52 g DME in 500 ml water, plus a pinch of yeast nutrient. Spent starter was sweet-tart with a prominent Cheerios flavor that dominated the aftertaste (THP).

26 February 2017
Chilled for several days, decanted & added new starter (1.5 oz DME in .5 qt water plus yeast nutrient). THP was very prominent, the principal flavor of the spent starter, followed by a faint tartness.

16 April 2017
Chilled for several days, decanted & added final runnings from an IPA. Much less grainy/cheerios, now only faint; stronger tartness that grips the back of the throat a bit. Still a keeper.

6 May 2017
Holy Mountain The Gray Tower Blend #3
    - Mandarin orange tart, deep damp funk

///

Sour Culture No. 5

25 December 2016
50 g DME in 500ml water, plus a pinch of yeast nutrient
2016 Cascade Blackcap Raspberry
   - Strong lactic tartness, big dark berry, jammy, fantastic

30 December 2016
2016 Logsdon Farms Cerasus
   - Tart cherry, woody, drying, very slight Cheerios at end

26 February 2017
Chilled for several days, decanted & added new starter (1.5 oz DME in .5 qt water plus yeast nutrient). Spent starter was clean, weakly lactic tart, watery, a touch cherry.

16 April 2017
Chilled for several days, decanted & added final runnings from an IPA. Clean, solid tartness, still a good bit of cherry/berry.

17 June 2017
Chilled, decanted & added new starter (2 oz DME in .5 qt water plut yeast nutrient). Still pretty cleanly tart with a fair berry note, maybe a hint of graininess/Cheerios sneaking in. Next week, while it's hopefully very active, it will go into sour beer that will eventually get a bunch of stone fruit.

2014 Beehive Brewoff Results

We're just about settled in our new place in Reno. Helping this feel more like home, I put together a melomel a few weeks ago, which I'll move out of primary for clarification and further aging today. Today will also mark my first brewday in Nevada, an event that will definitely help me feel more at home here. The first bit of homebrewing activity here, however, came a few weeks ago in the form of my BJCP scoresheets from the 2014 Beehive Brewoff.

This was my second time entering this competition, and I felt the feedback I received both times was on the mark for the beers reviewed. I'm happy to report that this year the Belgian dark strong I brewed a couple years ago took second in the Belgian strong ale category with a respectable average score of 40. The years have treated this beer well, rounding off its sharp edges. It's gratifying as well as edifying to read reviews from impartial judges; even though they scored this beer well, they had suggestions for improving it.

Even more helpful were the scoresheets for the other two beers I entered, my second attempt at a Flanders red and my most recent iteration of Russian imperial stout. The RIS scored a 32, dinged primarily for high residual sweetness and astringency. The FG was quite high in the end, which I'd hoped would help balance the high amount of roasted grains (the main contributor of astingency). In the end, I missed the balance here; while I enjoyed the experiment of cutting out the caramel malts and upping the roasted component on this batch, it does make for a less pleasurable experience than it could be. I'll definitely retool for the next go-around, adding back some caramel and cutting down on the roast.

The Flanders red did not do well, scoring an average of 22. While it received generally good notes for the aroma, the judges pointed to a high level of acetobacter activity (vinegar) and high astringency. While they found it to be sour, they found little else. At the beginning of the summer, in the first few months after bottling, I got a ton of great cherry and bready malt riding the bracing wave of sourness in this beer. Tasting it now, however, I certainly agree with the judges; most of the cherry and malt have fallen off, leaving just a stomach-churning acidic burn. However, I think I've already had more mileage out of this batch than I could have reasonably expected: it blew out its airlock in primary over the summer while we were away for three months, then spent a year wasting away in a plastic bucket, prone to oxygen exposure and acetobacter infection, before I finally bottled it. That I was able to have a good tasting experience with this beer at all was a boon, given the amount of abuse and mishandling it received.

Though we're not in Salt Lake City anymore, I would not hesitate to enter this competition again. Furthermore, I plan to seek out competitions locally over the next few years; getting experienced opinions from others on how to improve my beers will certainly help me advance more quickly than just doing my own informal evaluations. Looking forward to brewing today, and improving those beers in subsequent batches.

Brett Love I

While it probably won't replace hops as the signature ingredient of American craft beer, Brettanomyces funk has come into its own as a popular brewing component in the last couple years.  This is the first in a planned series of all-Brett beers.  The inspiration for this one was Russian River's Consecration; a big, dark beer that will get fruit and oak made for a good choice to spend the summer maturing on a pitch of Brettanomyces.

My first choice for the yeast strain was Wyeast's Brett Lambicus, known for its pie cherry qualities.  Unable to get it in time for the brewday, I decided to mess with the tropical fruit character of White Labs' Brett Brux Trois.  As in the past, I included a short period of sour worting before the boil to lower the pH and thus encourage the yeast to move toward the funky side during fermentation (though I'm getting to the point with the process that I may try acid malt or adding lactic acid instead in the future; they'd be a lot less labour intensive ways and could get close to the same result).  Also to push for more funk, this batch saw no temperature control; ambient temp was pretty reasonable when we left town, and as the summer progresses, the higher temps may coax more interesting (or possibly terrible) compounds out of the fermentation process.  We'll find out what magic took place in about a month.

Brett Love I

Batch size: 5.5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.092
Projected SRM: 16.8
Projected IBU: 23.2
Boil time: 90 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 81%

Grains/Fermentables
41.2% - 7 lb Malteurop 2-row
29.4% - 5 lb Weyermann Pils
11.8% - 2 lb Weyermann Organic Vienna
8.8% - 1.5 lb Dingemans Aromatic
2.9% - 8 oz Weyermann Caramunich II
5.9% - 1 lb D-90 syrup (end of primary)

Hops
.6 oz Magnum (14.6%) (90 min)

Yeast
Lacto starter
WY5526 Brett Lambicus - yeast cake
WLP644 Brettanomyces Bruxellensis Trois - 2-qt starter

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (10 min)                   
1 lb Dried currants (end of primary)
8 fl oz Cherry concentrate (end of primary)
1 oz Bourbon-soaked 2nd-use oak cubes (end of primary)

Water additions (mash)
3 gal RO water
1 g Gypsum

Brewday: 22 May 2013
Mash: 156F for 60 minutes.
Pre-sour SG: 15P (1.061)

Sour worted for 7.5 hours.
Post-boil OG (w/o D-90 syrup): 20.6P (1.086)
Started at 63F ambient; left to ferment at summer ambient temps (probably 80F+) for 3 months.

End of primary: 19 August 2013
SG: 9.4P (measured) - corrected 1.007
Added D-90 syrup, currants (rinsed in Star San to remove oils), and oak.
Should’ve moved to a 5-gal secondary & racked on top to be able to reuse the big carboy and avoid oxidizing, but oh well.

2 September 2013: Restart of fermentation has been slow, but today there’s been a lot more airlock activity.  At this point the currants have swelled and are floating.

Bottled: 12 October 2013
FG: 1.013
ABV: 10.4%

Bottled with 5 oz table sugar and rehydrated champagne yeast.

Session Sour II

After the success of the first session sour last year, a couple friends of ours commissioned a second batch.  Given how much I enjoyed this bracing sour cherry beer myself, I was happy to oblige.  The recipe is essentially the same, just scaled up to a six-gallon batch.  I'd considered adding a couple packs of organic frozen cherries to supplement the concentrate, but when the time came I just upped the concentrate amount.  More cherry flavour?  Oh darn.

There were a couple slight process changes.  After doing more research on Brett in primary, and considering the larger batch size this time, I made a starter for my Wyeast Brett L pack.  Due to our busy schedules, the mash unintentionally sat doing its thing for nearly a full day; while the aroma coming from the mashtun had started to take on a bit of "stank," the wort tasted fine and the smell dissipated with the sparge and cleaning afterward.  In addition, the sour worting

stretched out to a full day and a half for this pass.  Again, this wasn't the original plan, but just how it worked out.  The bottles will tell for sure, but I hope that the lacto sourness won't be too much for the beer.  On a positive note, the boil didn't have any of the overfoaming issues I've had on sour worted batches in the past.

As one of our friends is moving at the end of May, this will be bottled earlier than I'd prefer; as you can see in the photo below, it's just begun to grow a fine, cruddy pellicle.  No use crying over spilled beer, though; I'm currently thinking on what I'd like to put on top of the Brett cake to develop some cherry pie funk over the summer.

Session Sour II - rebrew for Gabe & Larry

Batch size: 6 gallons
Projected OG (w/o cherry): 1.041
Projected SRM: 12.3
Projected IBU: 4.7
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 91%

Grains
80.0% - 7 lb Malteurop 2-row
13.3% - 1 lb Aromatic
6.7% - 8 oz Special B

Hops
.3 oz Willamette (4.7%) (60 min)

Yeast

1 qt Lacto starter
3.5 l starter WY5526 Brettanomyces Lambicus (stirplate) (10 days ahead - 7 ferment/3 crash)
    -both started 3 Feb 2013

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (10 min)
16 24 fl oz Montmorency cherry concentrate (post primary fermentation)
1.25 lb Organic whole frozen cherries with pits (post primary fermentation) Not this time

Water additions (mash)
5 qts RO water

Brewday: 17 February 2013
Mash: 9 qts @ 156F for 20 hours! Top started to scum over and get stinky, but wort was still worty sweet.  Temp dropped to 83F over that time.
1st sparge: 10 qts @ 212F
2nd sparge: 10 qts @ 212F
3rd sparge: 4 qts @ 212F
Pre-boil volume: 7 gallons

Brett starter took several days to show activity, but it eventually got going.  Crash cooled for about a week before brewing.

Cooled runnings to 112F & pitched lacto starter.  Plastic wrap over the wort.  Kept warm for 37.5 hours, then boiled as usual.

Fermented at 63F ambient.

9 March 2013: 24 fl oz cherry concentrate added, fermenter agitated.  Considering 25 lbs fruit per bottle, recalculated OG is 1.058

9 April 2013: Has developed a nice thin pellicle over the last few days.

2 September 2013: Transferred to secondary (5-gal carboy & 1-gal jug, actually) before leaving for the summer. Respectable pellicle has formed in each. Looking to bottle within the month.

Bottled: 12 October 2013
FG: 1.010
ABV: 6.3%

Sample was excellent: tangy sourness, with big, juicy fruit unfolding in the finish.  Probably even better than the first batch.
Bottled with 5.1 oz table sugar and rehydrated champagne yeast.

Flanders Red - Attempt #2

The second beer of my doctoral brewing/aging program is a Flanders red.  It's this style that really sent me down the path of sour beer; while I couldn't stand Duchesse, purportedly a great gateway sour, Rodenbach Grand Cru had me hooked from the first sip.  I've made one attempt at this style before, which, after a year of aging, unfortunately turned out a beer that had a light, pleasant pie-cherry aroma but a very bland taste (the extra gallon of wort fermented with raspberries and with a Ziploc bag in place of an airlock turned out to be far superior).

Given the spectacular failure of that first batch, a few alterations were in order.  The recipe changed, but more significant for this beer, the mash temperature was increased to leave more dextrins for the souring bugs to slowly devour over the next couple years.  Instead of using an oak peg, this batch will get cubes, which should be much more manageable for long term storage.  Avoiding a boneheaded move from last time, I'll also remember to toast the oak before it goes in the beer.  Out of necessity, the primary ferment will last a bit longer; we're on the road for a while, so this batch will have been sitting for about six weeks before being transferred off the the cake to age.  Primary is also happening in a bucket instead of a carboy; though this time will be relatively short in the life of the beer, it might be enough to allow for some extra oxygen pickup through the more permeable (than glass) plastic and encourage some extra acetic souring action.

There was no shortage of yeast that went into this batch.  Since different strains of yeast and bacteria grow at very different rates (with good ol' Saccharomyces usually coming out as the speed demon), making a starter of a yeast blend--in this case Wyeast 3763 Roeselare, originally from Rodenbach--can throw off the delicate balance of bugs and yeast in the packet.  Instead of a starter, two full smack packs went into primary.  As if that weren't enough, though--and it should have been--I also dosed it with the full Brett L yeast cake from my session sour.  Brettanomyces usually grows very slowly, but when used in place of Saccharomyces in primary it ferments much more quickly and cleanly.  In this beer it may hang back and let the Sacch from the Roeselare do the primary fermentation, then join in the funk-imparting process later...or it might do battle for dominance.

Evidence of the latter (or at least that there's just a whole mess of yeast in this batch) came in the form of kraeusen sputtering out the airlock, then the hole in the bucket lid as it filled the one and a half gallons of headspace in the primary with yeasty activity.  Before we left--on day four of primary--it had settled down a bit, and I replaced the stopped-up airlock with a fresh one.  By now, it's probably either blown off the second airlock or has settled down enough that it's out of that danger zone.  The fun will be not knowing until I get back in a few weeks.  This certainly won't be an uninteresting batch, though.

DMA Flanders Red
Batch size: 5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.066
Projected SRM: 14.8
Projected IBU: 13.8
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 88%

Grains
77.2% - 8 lb Malteurop 2-row
9.6% - 1 lb Weyermann Pale Wheat
9.6% - 1 lb Dingemans Cara 45
3.6% - 6 oz Special B

Hops
1 oz Hallertauer (4.3%) (60 min)

Yeast
2 pkgs WY3763 Roeselare Blend (no starter)
WY5526 Brett L (slurry)

Extras
1 tsp Yeast energizer (10 min)
Medium toast oak cubes, home toasted (secondary)

Water additions (mash)
10 qts RO water
1 g Epsom salts
1 g CaCl

Brewday: 15 June 2012
Mash: 158F for 60 minutes
Pre-boil volume: 6.5 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 12.8P (1.052)

Ferment in swamp cooler at 65F ambient
Strong activity by next morning

Update: 3 March 2013
Brewed right before leaving town for six weeks during the hottest part of the summer, we returned to find that this one hadn't stayed sealed, and had managed to develop a solid acetobacter infection.  I've left it alone in its fermenting bucket to see how it would develop.  Tried a sample a couple months ago; despite the infection, it's still just a pretty bland, non-funky, underhopped beer, much like my first Flanders was.  It's going to keep sitting around for now, and may stay in that bucket until graduation.  Maybe by then it will funk up and get interesting.

Secondary: 21 September 2013
Samples drawn over the past year haven’t been very impressive.  Needed the fermenter back for bottling, so transferred to several gallon jugs.  One jug got 1 oz bourbon-soaked second-use oak cubes, another got .5 oz, the rest were straight.  Will give it a few more months and see if anything positive develops from it.

Bottled: 12 April 2014
FG: 1.008
ABV: 7.6%
Bottled 4.3 gallons with 3.9 oz table sugar and rehydrated champagne yeast.

Tasting: 8 May 2014
Given this beer’s inauspicious start–fermenting at least semi-open for its first three months–it has really developed well beyond my expectations. Nice sharp sourness at the start, vinegar note that’s not overpowering, strong cherry later, and malty, bready finish. A bit thin and watery for a moment in the middle, but I don’t foresee any lack of enjoyment from drinking this beer. Definitely a testament to giving the bugs proper time to develop their signature flavours.

Session Sour

My latest sour project has been to start playing with Brettanomyces, and I was particularly inspired by Colorado brewery Crooked Stave's all-Brett fermentations. Lacking the cellar space of our old place, which allowed me to tuck a fermenter out of the way for a year or more, I was interested in what I’d read about conducting primary fermentations with Brett; when left to do the bulk of the work, it can ferment as quickly (or even more quickly) than a traditional Saccharomyces strain. The quicker fermentation seems to usually result in a reduction of Brett’s normal funky character, however.

I planned for a session beer grist to further promote a quick fermentation; specialty additions of aromatic and Special B contributed to a gold-amber colour and possibly a little depth of malt character. Hops were minimal. Not having a lot of hands-on experience with the different strains (yet), I was intrigued by the pie-cherry descriptors used for Wyeast’s B. lambicus. To encourage the yeast to produce the character for which it’s known, I soured the wort overnight to drop the pH, mimicking what would happen in a more traditional sour fermentation that included lacto and/or pedio phase.

I brewed this literally just before we left for our Midwestern Christmas; I was chilling as DeAunn was loading the car (cos I’m a spectacular husband). It sat in the swamp cooler with the aquarium heater set to keep it fermenting warm(ish) for nearly a month before I got back; at that point, I cranked up the temp further, which yielded more activity. It should be pretty well ready to bottle; I just have to wait until my current cold abates so I don’t end up infecting it in the eleventh hour. Hoping this one turns out more like my raspberry Flanders red (success) than my regular Flanders (epic fail).

Session Sour

Batch size: 5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.043
Projected SRM: 12.8
Projected IBU: 10.2
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 88%

Grains
76.9% - 5 lb 2-row
15.4% - 1 lb Aromatic
7.7% - 8 oz Special B

Hops
.2 oz Columbus (13.9%) (60 min)

Yeast
1 qt Lacto starter
1 pkg WY5526 Brettanomyces lambicus (no starter)

Extras
1 tsp Irish moss (10 min)
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (10 min)

Water additions (mash)
5 qts RO water

Brewday: 20 December 2011
Mash: 156F for 90 minutes
Pre-boil volume: 6.1 gallons
Pre-sour SG: 8.2P (1.033)

Cooled wort to 110F & pitched lacto starter. No plastic shielding the wort surface. Kept warm for 11 hours, then boiled as usual.

No real sourness noted before boil, but as the wort came up to boiling, a light but firm citrus aroma was present. Post-boil wort tasted lightly tangy.

Fermented in swamp cooler at 68F ambient

15 January 2012: Some bubbles & yeast colonies on surface. Bumped ambient temp to 76F.  Noticeable jump in activity after a few hours.  After several days, cooled it down to upper 50s; following that, brought it out to warm up for bottling, but haven't yet had a chance to do so.

Bottled (gallon jug): 17 February 2012
FG: unmeasured
Fermented kettle extras in a Carlo Rossi jug.  Thought it was working on an acetobacter infection, but upon further inspection it seems to have been starting a Brett pellicle; the main batch is doing the same thing.  Will leave the main batch to see how it develops; bottled the small batch to check progress.
Bottled 3/4 gallon with .6 oz table sugar and rehydrated champagne yeast.

14 March 2012: Bottles from Rossi jug carbonated well, but were pretty thin and only exhibited a little sourness and Brett pie cherry character.  To encourage more Brett character to develop (and to hopefully enhance a pretty lifeless beer), added 15 fl oz concentrated Montmorency cherry juice.  Visible activity within a few days; will give it another couple months before checking on it.

One distributor notes concentrated cherry juice at 68 brix; have not factored in its impact on gravity.

Bottled: 15 June 2012
FG: 1.009
ABV: 4.4%

Bottled with 4.3 oz table sugar and rehydrated champagne yeast.

Tasting:  Freaking fabulous.  Quite tart (lacto) with cherry following and a hint of malt underneath.  This has been a great year-round beer, and while it's not for everyone, it's been very popular with sour fans.  A rebrew is currently underway.

The week in brew

I have a couple new beers in the fermenters that I still need to write up, but thought I’d switch up the format a bit and cover some of my other homebrew-related stuff going on in the past few days here.

Thursday I cooked up a couple batches of chili (one with meat for me, the other vegetarian for DeAunn) based on Sean Paxton’s recipe, which first rocked my world in the spring. I kept it pretty much the same, though I simplified the meat bill; the vegetarian version got black beans and diced red potatoes in place of the meat. My batch got a bottle of Old Rasputin (always a winner) while DeAunn’s employed a local option: Epic Brewing’s Smoked Porter. The smoke phenolics went well with the chipotle pepper I added to the vegetarian chili. Both batches turned out exceptionally, and we still have a little of each left to enjoy. We complemented them with some sharp cheddar and whole wheat crackers.

Thursday night, I finally managed to bottle my Holiday 2011 and chocolate-mint-oatmeal stout. The Holiday was pretty easy; the sample seemed bland, but as the rye 70/- started out the same way and really came into its own in the bottle, I’m not too worried. The stout was a bit messier; the cocoa powder had formed a rocky doppelganger krauesen in secondary, which made my original plan to whirlpool it all to the middle of the fermenter less of a great idea. Even after giving it some time to settle before racking, the beer ran off looking like really dark chocolate milk. I added vanilla extract and all of my mint tincture, but the mint wasn’t really coming across, so on a whim I added some of the mint extract we had in the cupboard. It wasn’t until after I added it that I read the label: it’s an alcohol-free extract that includes sunflower oil, which caused it to bead up in the bottling bucket. I kept stirring as I bottled to hopefully keep it in solution long enough for it to get into the bottles, but at least the mint aroma was there. The bottles have already formed chunky cocoa krauesens, and we’ll just have to see if they develop any head at all with the oil in there. I’m also still trying to get the mint aroma out of my bottling bucket and plastic bottling pieces.

After some excitement Friday morning involving the dog, a chocolate cookie, an emergency vet visit, and some induced vomiting, I made it down to the LHBS to pick up the packet of Wyeast Brett L I special ordered for an upcoming batch, along with grains for said batch and an extra fermenting bucket. Then late Friday night, DeAunn and I cracked open the reserve bottle of my last blueberry stout, now more than two years old, with a friend. This friend has volunteered to buy the blueberries for a new batch, so the time was right for sharing. It’s mellowed a lot, and has traded much of its winey quality for more blueberry flavour, a pleasant surprise.

The only action Saturday saw was the prepping of two starters. The traditional one of Denny’s Favorite 50 (WY1450) went on the stirplate, and looks to have already finished up. The other was a lacto starter made of table sugar and a bit of base malt kept warm with an aquarium heater; that one will keep going pretty much right up until pitching time to grow as much as possible.

Sunday morning I put the new bucket to work as a secondary for a citrus saison; more on that coming soon. Six and a half pounds of frozen mandarins and satsumas floating in five gallons of beer looks pretty cool, in my humble opinion, especially with the temperatures outside right now. I also washed the yeast cake for a Belgian dark strong in the new year. Now I’m just waiting on those blueberries to arrive so I can rack the stout onto them and leave it until the middle of next month when I get back from Chicago.

Next on the brew docket is a pretty simple pale ale and an attempt at a low-gravity “quick” sour/funky beer. Don’t know yet if there’ll be time to get one or both done before leaving town for the holiday, but it sure would be nice to do so. Writeups on the beers in primary coming soon, too.

Sour Rye Saison

For my last Chicago brewday, I was looking to make a beer that would refresh us as we unpack in our new place in Salt Lake City.  Given how well last summer’s saison went over, another one, lower in gravity, was in order.  Rye has found a solid place in my brewery over the last year, adding its spiciness and slick mouthfeel, so I wanted to make it a major player in this recipe.

I was also intrigued by how the Cherry Sour turned out following a long sour worting; it produced a prominent, very clean lactic sourness.  While using a neutral ale yeast made for a fairly one-dimensional end product, it seemed this method, applied gently, could add another layer of complexity to what the saison yeast would contribute.  I had just a couple ounces of Amarillo hops left to help build on the citrus character of the sour worting; to augment this I made my first foray into the world of New Zealand hops by adding an ounce of Pacific Jade, known for their citrus and black pepper notes (which should go well with the yeast).

When I started using rye, I followed conventional wisdom in keeping the percentage low to limit its purported gumminess from stopping up the mash.  After reading about a beer made with 100% malted rye, I went bigger; I did an English bitter made almost entirely of rye, and from then on I haven’t had any of the mashing/sparging problems attributed to rye (or wheat, for that matter).  Or at least I hadn’t until this brewday.

I mashed low to keep the final beer dry, as I did with the previous saison; despite the high percentage of rye in the mash and being in the temp range that can make its proteins so notoriously gummy, my experience with my system gave me confidence that I’d come sailing through this without incident.  On top of that, my poorly insulated mashtun lost almost 15 degrees (F) during the long mash.  The time came to start the vorlauf; I attached the hose, opened up the valve per usual, and after the first small surge, it slowed to a trickle.  Minutes

went by, and next to nothing came out.  I stirred the mash, I blew back through the tube, but nothing got it moving.  So I resorted to a method I consider fairly un-French; I decocted.

This traditional German technique is used to raise the mash temperature by drawing off a thick portion of the mash (lots of grain, a little wort), boiling it, then adding it back to the main mash; it also tends to increase mash efficiency and produce maltier beers.  I’ve only decocted once, to add extra maltiness to a small batch of weizenbock; in this case, though, I figured raising the mash temperature to “unglue” the rye proteins was my best bet and this was the only option I had for doing that on my setup.  Unfortunately, the first decoction of just a couple quarts of thick mash didn’t have much effect at all, not even getting it back up to mash temp.  So I doubled the size for the second decoction, which bumped up the temp to 160F.  And the runoff was still interminably slow.

Eventually, I just brought the water for the first sparge to a boil and put it in on top of the mash, bringing the temp to 176F.  That’s hot enough to start extracting unwanted tannins from the grains, but I hoped it would also be hot enough unstick the damn rye.  And the runoff was STILL slow...but moving.  The brewday ended up much longer than planned, but I was able to collect my runnings and get the thing to the boil.  Between the Munich malt and the decoctions, this will probably fall on the maltier side of things than saisons normally do.

Of course, since I was sour worting this beer, I wasn’t even close to the end.  After a 20-minute boil to get past the hot break and sterilize the wort, I cooled it down to about 115F, pitched my lacto starter, covered it with plastic wrap, and put it in the swamp cooler to let the bugs stew just overnight.  The next day I found that I must’ve done a pretty poor job keeping the plastic wrap right down on the wort (to inhibit unwanted bugs that need oxygen, like acetobacter), as the wort had a frizzy, frothy head unlike the thick, controlled scum that showed up on the Cherry Sour.  Still, it didn’t smell out of bounds, so to speak, and it was about to get a full 60-minute boil, so I didn’t worry too much about it.

The normal boil proceeded without incident, other than it seemed impossible to keep this one from boiling over; even though I’d boiled it past the hot break before souring, the head as it came to boil was immense, it still billowed up despite spritzing with a water bottle and keeping the flame low, and it persisted to some degree through the end of the boil.  I chilled and set it aside, but was unable to get back to it for almost a full day.  Eager to avoid a double souring, I brought it back to a short boil and chilled it again; on reheating, it had

a really wonderful, gentle fruit aroma that I attribute to the late hops.

Primary fermentation chugged away, and the dry hops went in right on top when it subsided.  I’d only planned to have them in there for about 5 days, but with us busy packing, painting and cleaning for the imminent move, I didn’t have a chance to bottle before leaving for my music festival.  By the time we get back, they will have had 3 ½ weeks of contact time.  After all the hassle of this brew session, I’m looking forward to bottling this one, along with the Russian imperial stout, which has been sitting on oak for 2 months now.

Sour Rye Saison - Farmhouse ale with lacto starter

Batch size: 5.5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.048
Projected SRM: 8.4
Projected IBU: 28.9
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 80%

Grains
50% - 5 lb Rye malt
50% - 5 lb Munich

Hops
1 oz Amarillo (7.8%) (20 min)
.5 oz Amarillo (10 min)
.5 oz Pacific Jade (13.4%) (10 min)
.5 oz Amarillo (Dry hop 5 days)
.5 oz Pacific Jade (Dry hop 5 days)

Yeast
Sour starter (pre-boil)
WY3711 French Saison - 3L starter from stirplate (primary)

Extras
1 tsp Irish moss (10 min)
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (10 min)

Water additions (mash)
2 g Chalk

Brewday: 2 July 2011
Mash-in: 12.5 qts @ 148F for 2 hours - added .5 qt to bring down temp
Temp drop to 134F; viscous & very slow runoff
1st decoction - 2 qts thick mash boiled for 5 minutes; raised temp to 144F
2nd decoction - 4 qts thick mash boiled for 5 minutes; raised temp to 160F
Sparge still stuck; eventually just added 1st sparge in with mash
1st sparge: 10 qts @ 212F - raised temp to 176F
STILL running off super slow!
Pre-boil volume: 7 gallons
Pre-sour OG: 10.8 P (1.044)
Boiled through hot break, cooled to 115F, pitched sour starter, covered in plastic wrap, kept warm in swamp cooler overnight

3 July 2011: Following 20 hours souring, normal 60-minute boil
4 July 2011: Didn’t pitch yeast yesterday; brought back to boil, cooled again, aerated, pitched - wonderful fruity aromatics on reheating

Fermentation started in basement at ambient (68F) for 2 days, then brought upstairs to ramp up

Dry hop: 11 July 2011

Bottled: 6 August 2011
FG: 1.010
ABV: 5%
Sample nicely tangy, but dominates the yeast; next time only sour a portion of the wort
Bottled with 5.5 oz table sugar

First tasting: 20 August 2011
Bright and fruity from the souring, but not overly so.  Good breadiness as it warms, but sourness overshadows the yeast character.

Cherry Sour

With the apparent failure of my Flanders red to sour (aside from the partial gallon batch done with raspberries, which turned out pretty nice), I’ve been hungry to find success with a sour beer.  With the approach of summer and our imminent move, however, I only had a matter of months to produce it; while I look forward to letting wave after wave of different bugs produce a richly layered, sour and funky beer over the span of many months and years, it’s not going to happen before we head west.  I’ve produced three Berliner weisses in the last few years, the first turning out the best (most sour and to style), so I turned once again to my friend lactobacillus to produce the sour I crave.

Michael Tonsmiere’s Mad Fermentationist blog has been a guide and inspiration in my journey into funk; without serious contender, it’s my favourite brewing blog.  Having read his post on sour worting some time ago, I finally gave it a go myself; other sources I considered for this project included a long thread on Berliner weisse brewing on the NB forum and a recent article in Zymurgy on quick souring.  I made a sour starter with some brown sugar and uncrushed Munich, kept between 90 and 100F; the low gravity sugar water and warm temperatures (up to 120F) provides the lacto present on the grain husks ideal conditions to grow.  Having given the starter the best part of a week to get really disgusting and sour as possible, I made up a simple moderate-gravity wort of 2-row and wheat, brought it to a boil to kill off any bacteria present in the wort itself, cooled it to about 115F, and pitched the starter.  The wort then went

into the swamp cooler in the brewpot, covered in plastic wrap with as much air pushed out as possible to inhibit aerobic bacteria growth.  It was kept warm (around the same temps as the starter) for five days to get as sour and nasty as possible.  Once the wort was sufficiently sour (and smelling relatively unpleasant) I treated it like any other beer: I gave it a full 60-minute boil with a small amount of bittering hops, chilled it, and pitched the yeast.  Looking for a clean ferment, I went with US-05 at reasonably cool temps.

The pre-fermented wort (post boil) already tasted pretty darn tart; I was a little worried it would be a violent, enamel-stripping machine once it fermented out.  Once primary was completed, though, it had a pleasant, bright acidity that begged for a hot day and a large goblet.  I wasn’t done with it yet, though.  The Mad Ferm blog mentioned that the sourness this method produces is very one-dimensional when compared to traditional slow-souring methods, and suggested adding another layer of flavour to complement the acidity and add to the overall profile.  As DeAunn has especially liked dosing Berliner weisse with a small amount of fruit syrup (as is traditional), I made my “extra something” a healthy hit of cherry.

To the secondary I added a gallon of Knudsen’s cherry juice, half black cherry, half tart, and a 16-ounce bottle of Montmorency cherry concentrate, which, according to the bottle, has been pressed from over 1,000 cherries.  Needless to say, on its own it’s pretty damned potent.  All of the cherry juice and concentrate was pasteurized, so I didn’t worry about infection from it.  Entering secondary, the beer gained a deep red colour from the cherry and came up to just over 6 gallons in volume.  I put the fermenter in the swamp cooler with water that was about 60F; I wanted to preserve as much of the cherry aromatics as possible during the secondary fermentation, which would be blown off if it got too violent.

After several weeks in secondary, the cherry had fermented out almost completely, and I bottled a very pink, fairly sour beer.  Despite the low secondary temps, the flat sample didn’t display much in the way of cherry flavour or aroma; given that it feremented out so far, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.  If I try this again, I might bump up the amount of cherry even more.  At this point, it seems like what I’ll end up with is a pink Berliner weisse; while that’s not quite what I had in mind, I won’t be upset if that’s what comes of it.  For more fun next time, I might try using a Brett strain for primary to follow the sour worting to layer on the funk with the straight sourness.  I also forsee using this method to add a touch of sourness to a porter for a more "authentic" quality.

Cherry Sour

Batch size: 5.2 gallons
Projected OG: 1.044
Projected SRM: 3.2
Projected IBU: 10.7
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 77%

Grain
53.9% - 4 lb 5 oz Belgian Wheat
46.1% - 3 lb 11 oz 2-row

Hops
.2 oz Columbus (14.5%) (60 min)

Yeast
Sour starter (pre-boil)
US-05 (primary)


Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (pre-sour boil)
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (10 min)
1 tsp Irish moss (10 min)
1 qt Knudsen Just Tart Cherry Juice (secondary)
1 qt Knudsen Black Cherry Juice (secondary)
1 pt Cherry concentrate (secondary)

Water additions (mash)
1 gal RO water
2 g Chalk
2 g Baking Soda
1 g Gypsum
½ tsp Acid blend

Sour starter: 6 May 2011
Boiled 2.5 oz dark brown sugar in 1 qt water
Cooled to 110F in Mason jar, added small handful of uncrushed Munich
Kept 90-110F to encourage lacto growth; grew some chunky funk and aroma; hard to discern sour flavour amidst sugar sweetness

Brewday: 11 May 2011
Mash-in: 13 qts @ 152F for 12 hours - dropped to 116F
1st sparge: 9 qts @ 212F - added to mash to extend sacch rest - settled at 152F for 15 minutes
2nd sparge: 10 qts @ 212F
Pre-boil volume: 7 gallons
Pre-soured SG: 9P (1.036)
Brought to boil, cooled to 115F, pitched sour starter, covered in plastic wrap, kept warm in swamp cooler

15 May 2011: Normal boil for 60 minutes with hops, chill & add yeast as usual
Smelled mildly awful coming out of the cooler, which changed to tart during the boil
Post-boil volume: 5.2 gallons
OG: 11P (1.044)
Quite sour already, unfermented; almost afraid this will be undrinkable

Fermented in basement at ambient (62F)

Secondary: 26 May 2011
Added cherry juice & concentrate first, splashed a bit to aerate; fermented out below 60F in swamp cooler to preserve as much of the aromatics as possible

Good tangy lactic sourness; very quaffable.

Cherry juice mix SG: 21.8P (1.092)
SG (w/o cherry): 1.009
SG (w/cherry): 1.024

Bottled: 15 June 2011
Composite OG: 1.053
[(1.044 x 5) + (1.092 x 1.125)]/6.125 = 1.053
FG: 1.012
ABV: 5.3%

Bottled 6 gallons with 6.4 oz table sugar